


Émerveillement

by Small_Mercy



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Gen, Missing Persons, Mystery, Past Child Abuse, Past Comes Back, Secrets, Stalker
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 09:08:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28561068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Small_Mercy/pseuds/Small_Mercy
Summary: Morgan ignores the sound that falls from Prentiss' lips as he looks around the room for signs of Reid but doesn't find any, no half drank coffee, no perpetually balanced white board markers, three pairs of footsteps approach the room. Morgan feels the panic build up in his chest long before the door opens and the question of the day is asked. Where is Reid?
Relationships: Derek Morgan & Spencer Reid, Spencer Reid & Unsub, The BAU Team & Spencer Reid
Kudos: 29





	Émerveillement

**Author's Note:**

> For the purposes of this story I am using a bit of wibby wobbly timey wimey. First, for our purposes, JJ and Garcia are both assigned to the BAU after the Adrian Bale case. JJ was at the FBI but not assigned to the BAU. Second, Spencer Reid joined when he was three years younger, so at 19 not 21, and so the birthday we see in episode 4 of first season is his 21st birthday not his 24. So this takes palace season 4 before JJ’s leave of absence so that makes him 24.

“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.” - Gautama Buda 

Derek Morgan was never one to relish in the splendor of early morning. He left that to the likes of Hotch and his Pretty boy. No Derek Morgan was more of a creature of night. More so enjoying the tension reduction from a few reps at the gym, a few miles around his apartment, or a few rounds at the bar gave him after the sun had set. So waking up, especially if he was expected to do so before seven in the morning, was never one of his favorite activities. 

Yet, on this morning awareness came to him sharply as a loud slam echoed in the small hotel room. He sat up, removed the comforter, and was on his feet in seconds. He grabbed his side arm from the nearby chair and scanned for Reid. He wasn’t in the main room but the door to outside was open. Derek used his mounted light to brighten his view as he took calculated steps toward the balcony, not calling out that he was FBI in the hopes that Reid was on the other side of the door. However when he got there the balcony was empty. He then went on a sweep of the room. Anything and everything was empty but he still felt like an exposed nerve. It didn’t help that not only did his sweep of the room come up empty of anyone else including one lengthy genius.

Slipping down onto his bed he set the gun down at his side and let out a breathy curse hand rubbing at his temples. A look at the digital clock sitting at the bedside told him it was a quarter past five a.m which was much too early to be awake in his opinion. And more critical look at his roommates' side of the hotel room showed that Spencer hadn’t even managed the measly six hours Derek got. Which was something he was going to have a talk with the kid about because a blind man could see the kid was fighting a loosing battle with his mental health and not sleeping for 72 hours straight was sure to be feeding the wrong proverbial dog. Because he outright refused to leave his room before 6am he spent a few minutes looking over the desk that sat on Reid’s section of the room. It was covered with paper, his little pencil box of office supplies, two cups of coffee, and two blankets that were haphazardly draped over the back of the chair. One a hot pink foe fur thing that Morgan remembers getting a picture of from Garcia two years ago just after Georgia asking if he thought Reid would balk at the texture. He had responded appropriately with a how in the hell would he know, but when the next Monday the boy wonder opened the gift bag he took to it immediately, and Derek would be lying if he hadn’t sent a few pictures of pretty boy wrapped up in a ridiculous bright pink fluffy cocoon. The other was a heavy and large knit blanket that was deceptively heavy. Pretty boy never spent a night without one or both if they made it to the hotel. Hell the kid would even forgo changing out of his clothes to tuck those two articles of fabric around him and bunker down for the night.   
Speaking of clothes, Spencer’s sweater vest could be seen laying at top of his go bag that had recently been rifled through. His striped button down draped over the chair where said go bag sat. He wondered briefly where his Pretty had happened to wander off to with an undershirt, dress pants and converse. He hoped it was only to get a coffee, and that it was Pretty Boy’s level of sleep deprivation that had him leaving the balcony door slightly open when he left. 

He pulled out his IPod from his go bag thankful it still had a good charge and started listening to some music resting his eyes, knowing full well he wouldn’t fall asleep but hoping that he could rest his eyes enough he would feel less like a zombie as he made it through the day. 

Almost an hour later his actual alarm sounded and he let out a yawn before reaching and clicking the off button. This time as he drug himself out of bed he felt a bit better. He went into the restroom first, relieved his bladder and washed his hands then face to help him wake up. As he went to brush his teeth he realized that though his travel toothbrush and toothpaste were still there the sonic screwdriver tooth brush which belonged to Spencer was on the counter, not put away as the genius did every morning. A hopeful ritual that stated that this would be the last day in a hotel and he would have to pack less than the rest. Since it was still out maybe the genius had finally succum to exhaustion and had fallen asleep.

Knowing that despite the fact he needed the sleep the kid would be pissed if Morgan didn’t wake him he decided to check the room while he brushed his teeth, he hadn’t really looked around when he had woken up, but he was hopeful that the genius was finally getting some rest, either leaned against the desk as he had been the past two days or in the other bed in the room. 

But his initial sweep showed no signs of six feet tall walking talking computer program. Nor did it show signs of any more coffee intake or ruffling of papers since when he was awake earlier this morning. He decided to take a closer look at the desk the coffee cup that sat the furthest back was from the night before when he had gotten the kid his sugary death drink as a way to make the boy genius more open to sharing what was bugging him the past few days. The other drink had a small red mark on it that Derek himself had made when he patted the kids shoulder to tell him goodnight. It was a trick he learned when the kid first started rooming with him, a way to tell just how many coffee the kid had in one night. Normally he had to go searching for this cup because the kid was anal about throwing away empty cups once he was pulled from his mental zone. 

He then looked over the map seeing the start of some letter formations an F and a D were clear and marked in red in, there were lines in pencil trying to figure out the rest of the letters. Seeing this Derek breathed a sigh of relief. The kid probably had this breakthrough and in the wee hours of the morning ran back to the station, and knowing Hotch the man probably let him stay despite Reid’s own exhaustion due to the fact the sooner the case ended the sooner the team could get home. Derek had some choice words about that, but he would wait until they got home to discuss them with the unit chief. 

Before he left the room he called down to the front desk to commemorate the story he had already accepted in his mind. Gina, the nice older woman who worked at the front informed him that the other man who was in his room had requested a taxi in the early hours of the morning. She didn’t know where that taxi was going but he had not had any of his things, which to Morgan meant he was more than likely going to the station.

He nodded firm in his understanding of the situation and changed for the day before making his way to the continental breakfast downstairs. He smiled at Gina as he passed ignoring the questioning look from Prentiss until she cornered him at the coffee maker. 

“Where is Reid?” She asked her voice just this side of demanding. Morgan wanted to snap back, but he knew that it was not Prentiss fault Reid was running himself into the ground and that by snapping at her he would do little more than drive a firmer wedge between the team. He knew what the kids behavior had looked like the past few days. The erratic mood swings, the hand tremors the kid couldn’t seem to stop, the complete lack of even pretending sleep, the hyper vigilance, the decreased coffee intake. It looked bad, he knew that. But he also liked to believe that he could trust the kid. Reid had stated many times over the past few days that he wasn’t using. Anger growing with each instance Morgan suggested that he was. 

And it was only Morgan who was suggesting it, because apparently the rest of the team found him to be the closest to the kid meaning that he was the one to address it. Not that anyone seemed to want to realize that when it came to life or death situations it was ‘Hotch’ that the kid called not Morgan. 

“Pretty Boy had a breakthrough last night, ran back to the station.” He offered and watched the woman nod in understanding but wondering when a team member giving up their mental and physical health for this job became so normalized one nodded their head at it. He made looked at Prentiss’ full coffe cup holder and made one of his own. Even though he knew Prentiss had one for each of the night shift team mates on this case and Morgan just had one for himself and three for his own personal bean pole. 

Morgan took the SUV to the station, thankful in that Reid’s flee from the hotel he had kept enough wit about him not to use the SUV rather to hail a cab. 

When they got to the station Morgan waved Prentiss ahead because Garcia’s number was ringing through. 

“What you and pretty boy got for me princess.” 

“Well I don’t know about boy wonder. But I have the name of our perpetually leaving partial print perpetrator. The print found on the bag which held the grody remains of one Ms. Allison Janey is none other than Richard Prior.” 

“Okay, what else can you tell me about the guy.” 

“Prior is a cartographer, he travels around the nation mapping mostly little towns for his blog. He drives and Silver 98 Kia Rio and currently his ‘home address’ is a PO box in Texhoma Oklahoma. He has a good rap sheet going though, mostly domestic disturbances at local haunts where he works. We have one for aggravated assault with a wine glass.” She states as he pulls out a small notebook taking down the information just in case Hotch hasn’t gotten the same spiel. 

“Got any idea on a current residence.” 

“Yes but its in Alpoka Florida. Which is a few thousand miles from where Mrs. Janey was found.” She says and he can hear the click of her pen as this lead like so many others slips away from them. 

“Keep looking.”

“Will do chocolate thunder Quanitco over and out.” She says as the phone line disconnects. Morgan rolls his eyes before grabbing the tray of coffees and making his way into the building. The conference room that the team has taken over is empty barring Prentiss who is looking critically at the map, Derek follows her gaze to find that the large map in the conference room does not hold the odd letter forms that the one in the hotel room did. 

Morgan ignores the sound that falls from Prentiss’ lips as he looks around the room for signs of Reid but doesn’t find any, no half drank coffee, no perpetually balanced white board markers, three pairs of footsteps approach the room. One flat and heavier, Rossi, one flat and uneven, Hotch, and one pointed, JJ. Morgan feels the panic build up in his chest long before the door opens and the question of the day gets asked. 

“Where is Reid?”


End file.
